ArchiveAugust 2016

Pedestrian safety initiatives are part of the federal transit spending announced by the federal government. Municipal policy wonks in Toronto were dancing with joy last week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced nearly $1.5 billion in funding for public transit and transportation infrastructure in Ontario. I mean, it was a kind of subtle, barely perceptible form of dancing – policy wonks...

A condominium under construction is shown in Toronto on Saturday, February 4, 2012. In my growing neighbourhood in downtown Toronto, applications for new condo buildings are almost as numerous as the raccoons. And with each new “coming soon” sign comes the same question from many of my neighbours: how tall is it? The height of these proposed buildings is almost always the start of the...

Sweaty, hot and just plain gross. That's the way some subway trains have felt this summer as temperatures boil. As Toronto endures another heatwave this summer, I’ve got numbers on the brain. That’s the temperature measured in a Line 2 subway car by the Toronto Star in July. I’d bet it was even hotter last week. The reason? The TTC says about 20 to 25 per cent of the 370 subway cars that use...

Rob Ford appears in this undated still image taken from video, released on Thursday, August 11, 2016. It appears to show the late Toronto mayor smoking crack cocaine. It’s here. The video that, three years ago, caused Toronto City Hall to descend into chaos. The one that forced throngs of reporters, desperate for comment, to set up camp outside the mayor’s office. The one that prompted a confused...

Car2Go has designated parking zones across Toronto but has lobbied the city for access to more neighbourhoods. Four years ago this month, I broke up with my car. It was amicable. My Mazda and I had been drifting apart for a while. I had started freelancing full-time the year before, saying goodbye to my regular commute. And I was (and still am) privileged enough to live downtown, where most...

B.C. premier Christy Clark announced a plan to put a 15 per cent tax on foreign real estate buyers in Vancouver. While Matt Elliot says he understands the appeal, building more housing is the only way to fix Toronto's market. Last Monday, British Columbia premier Christy Clark announced a plan to introduce a 15 per cent tax on foreign real estate buyers in Vancouver. It’s part of a bid to...